APPLYING CHAID TO IDENTIFY THE ACCOUNTING-FINANCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MOST PROFITABLE REAL ESTATE COMPANIES IN SPAIN

The aim of this study is the determination, from an empirical perspective, of the accounting and financial features which could condition financial profitability of real estate companies, to identify the performances that guarantee its permanency in the current marketplace, characterized by the world economic crisis, specially in Spain, whose housing sector represents an important contributor to the economic growth. Although at a theoretical level the DuPont Model establishes the relationships between a group of accounting ratios and financial profitability. This paper uses a sample of 5,484 Spanish real estate companies to quantify these relationships and to extract the most relevant ones and to obtain the patterns of the most profitable companies. We use ROE to measure profitability and we analyze various independent variables about solvency, liquidity, activity, turnover, financial equilibrium and investment structure. The main contribution is of methodological nature, as we have applied statistics tools that do not require initial hypotheses on the distribution of the variables, by using a data mining technique of classification and regression tree based on rule induction algorithms known as CHAID. The study provides quantitatively success profiles by means of a set of rules describing the patterns of the most profitable companies.CHAID; financial profitability; classification trees; accounting ratios; Spain.

Professors as Architects of Student Learning

The famous French aviator, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, commented about leadership by saying, If you want to build a ship, don\u27t drum up people together to collect wood and don\u27t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the sea. In a similar fashion, as leaders of learning, professors should follow the precepts of educational psychology to inspire students to deeply learn the course material. A student who is made passionate about learning a topic will fill his or her own bucket with greater expedience and efficiency than any professor can. This is a testament to the virtues of intrinsic, versus extrinsic, motivation. An optimal learning environment can be crafted, first, by providing a setting for academic success. A savvy professor can then design the course assessment scheme around harnessing student desires for autonomy. Role modeling can be integrated into the curriculum to shape student attitude and behavior. In similar fashion, an overall reinforcement plan can be instituted to reward appropriate student behavior. Following these tenets, educators can make learning an autotelic event that it is a self-contained activity, pursue by students not just for a good grade, but for the sake of learning itself (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)

Using Informal Student Feedback to Enhance Learning

Let\u27s face it. The current process of having students evaluate their instructors is like asking diners to rate their meals. Are diners truly the best people to rate a restaurant experience? After all, many diner reviews are biased by how popular a restaurant is, or influenced by previous commentary they have read. Some diners don\u27t spend a fleeting moment pondering the nutritional value of a meal. Others rate a meal solely on the quantity of food received for the price paid. A few diners eschew all criteria other than taste

Learning Theoretical Concepts through Community Problem Solving: Service-Learning in Flight Safety Courses

Critics of higher education often criticize the chasm separating esoteric academic theory from the pragmatic knowledge required of students after graduation. Service-learning is presented as a catalyst for intrinsically motivating students to master course concepts. In service-learning, students collaborate with each other and with external stakeholders to fuse classroom theory with practical application in order to address real-world problems. Typological and historical overviews of service-learning are provided with special emphasis on how the systemic incorporation of service-learning throughout a degree program may increase student persistence by harmonizing academic processes with generational values. The use of service-learning in flight safety courses at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has not only improved safety at the campus and in the surrounding aviation community, it has enhanced the learning of technical concepts in students while greatly improving their soft skills

Organizational Acculturation JetBlue Airways through Values-Framed Instructional Design

New initiatives across the entire spectrum of academic education are attempting to develop values-based curricula that teach ethical decision making. Can a similar process be used to inculcate organizational culture in a corporate workforce? Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is exploring the use of values-framed instructional design (VFID), where traditional course contents are structured around organizational core values in order to explicitly and implicitly acculturate corporate workers. The method is currently being used to train instructor pilots at JetBlue Airways as a means of scaling organizational culture in step with ongoing growth. In order to determine the potential role for VFID in future corporate education programs, methodologies must be developed to measure the effectiveness of values based instruction as an acculturation tool and to assess its concomitant impact on the financial performance of an organization

Applying chaid to identify the accounting-financial characteristics of the most profitable real estate companies in Spain

The aim of this study is the determination, from an empirical perspective, of the accounting and financial features which could condition financial profitability of real estate companies, to identify the performances that guarantee its permanency in the current marketplace, characterized by the world economic crisis, specially in Spain, whose housing sector represents an important contributor to the economic growth. Although at a theoretical level the DuPont Model establishes the relationships between a group of accounting ratios and financial profitability. This paper uses a sample of 5,484 Spanish real estate com-panies to quantify these relationships and to extract the most relevant ones and to obtain the patterns of the most profitable companies. We use ROE to measure profitability and we analyze various independent variables about solvency, liquidity, activity, turnover, financial equilibrium and investment structure. The main contribution is of methodological nature, as we have applied statistics tools that do not require initial hypotheses on the distribution of the variables, by using a data mining technique of classification and regression tree based on rule induction algorithms known as CHAID. The study provides quantitatively success profiles by means of a set of rules describing the patterns of the most profitable companies.El objetivo de este estudio es la determinación, desde una perspectiva empírica, de las características económico-financieras que podrían condicionar la rentabilidad financiera de las empresas inmobiliarias, para identificar las actuaciones que garan-ticen su permanencia en el entorno actual, caracterizado por la crisis económica mundial, y especialmente, en España, cuyo sector inmobiliario supone una importante contribución al crecimiento económico. Aunque a nivel teórico, el Modelo Du-Pont establece las relaciones entre un conjunto de ratios contables y la rentabilidad financiera. Este trabajo usa una muestra de 5,484 empresas inmobiliarias españolas para cuantificar esas relaciones y para extraer las más relevantes, con el propósito de obtener los patrones de las empresas más rentables. Se utiliza el ROE para medir la rentabilidad financiera, y se analizan un conjunto de variables independientes relativas a solvencia, liquidez, actividad, rotaciones, equilibrio financiero y estructura económica. La principal contribución es de índole metodológica, ya que se aplican herramientas estadísticas que no requieren hipótesis iniciales sobre la distribución de las variables, aplicando una técnica de minería de datos de árboles de clasificación y regresión basada en algoritmos de inducción de reglas conocida como CHAID. El estudio ofrece cuantitativamente perfiles de éxito definidos con un conjunto de reglas que indican los patrones de las empresas más rentables

Estrategias didácticas en la resolución de problemas matemáticos, en equipo, en el tema de operaciones con expresiones algebraicas en una variable, en 8vo grado del Colegio Rubén Darío, del Municipio de la Conquista, departamento de Carazo, durante el I semestre del Año 2015

El presente trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo fomentar las Estrategias didácticas utilizadas por los docentes en la exploración de conocimientos previos y la resolución de problemas matemáticos en equipos, en el tema de operaciones con expresiones algebraicas en una variable en 8vo grado del Colegio Rubén Darío, del Municipio de la Conquista, del departamento de Carazo durante el I semestre del Año 2015. La particularidad de esta investigación, permitió incidir en la problemática que presentan los niños y niñas en la exploración delcurriculum que poseen antes situaciones problemáticas de su entorno al interactuar con sus compañerosen el tema de operaciones con expresiones algebraicas. Para esto se introdujeronexperiencias innovadoras (Modelo epistemológico, Modelo de Poyla, y la contextualización de situaciones problemáticos) que permitieron mejorar la calidad de la enseñanza. Es un estudio que permite describir la metodología de la enseñanza y la aplicación de diferentes estrategias didácticas para abordar el tema de operaciones con expresiones algebraicas Para obtener información se aplicaron diferentes instrumentos como: guía de entrevista al docente de segundo grado, guía de observación directa al aula de clase de segundo grado, se aplicó encuestas, para ver el avance en la problemática que presentan los niños y niñas, analizar las experiencia en la exploración de temas en equipo que tenían los y las alumnos del 8vo grado del Colegio Rubén Darío, del Municipio de la Conquista, del departamento de Carazo, durante el I semestre del Año 2015

Dust and Gas in the disc of HL Tauri: Surface density, dust settling, and dust-to-gas ratio

The recent ALMA observations of the disc surrounding HL Tau reveal a very complex dust spatial distribution. We present a radiative transfer model accounting for the observed gaps and bright rings as well as radial changes of the emissivity index. We find that the dust density is depleted by at least a factor 10 in the main gaps compared to the surrounding rings. Ring masses range from 10-100 M$_{\oplus}$ in dust, and, we find that each of the deepest gaps is consistent with the removal of up to 40 M$_{\oplus}$ of dust. If this material has accumulated into rocky bodies, these would be close to the point of runaway gas accretion. Our model indicates that the outermost ring is depleted in millimetre grains compared to the central rings. This suggests faster grain growth in the central regions and/or radial migration of the larger grains. The morphology of the gaps observed by ALMA - well separated and showing a high degree of contrast with the bright rings over all azimuths - indicates that the millimetre dust disc is geometrically thin (scale height $\approx$ 1 au at 100 au) and that a large amount of settling of large grains has already occurred. Assuming a standard dust settling model, we find that the observations are consistent with a turbulent viscosity coefficient of a few $10^{-4}$. We estimate the gas/dust ratio in this thin layer to be of the order of 5 if the initial ratio is 100. The HCO$^+$ and CO emission is consistent with gas in Keplerian motion around a 1.7 $M_\odot$ star at radii from $\leq 10 - 120\,$au.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, published in ApJ, same version as before but with slightly extended discussion on temperature and masses to account for literature published since initial submissio